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Brain Types And Parenting combines Jon Niednagel’s 4 decades of research with recent scientific discoveries to produce this first book in a new series of educational publications! Over 300 pages! Get your copy today!

What Is Brain Typing?

Posted on November 19 2010by admin2

Brain Types is the new science of classifying all people the world over into 16 genetic groupings, each masters of specific inborn mental and physical skills.

Years and years of empirical research have convinced us at BTI that each person in the world only has one of the 16 Brain Types, and it’s an inborn, genetically predisposed wiring that directly regulates both mental and motor skills. Each Brain Type not only has inherent and specific mental proficiencies (and deficiencies) but physical ones as well. These inborn traits are the greatest determinants for why people do what they do (excluding personal ethics, morality, etc.). We believe it won’t be long before Brain Types are proven genetically.

By determining an individual Brain Type, one can know—even as a youngster—what one is best cut out to do in life, and how best to get there.

Many frustrations and wasted time can be eliminated, with Brain Typing.

Whether it be in business, academics, relationships, parenting, sports, spirituality, vocations or any other aspect of life that deals with people, Brain Types can offer unparalleled insight and strategies for optimizing personal success—based on one’s individual and unique design.

Though people come in billions of differing nuances, they all have 8 (at least) mental functions upon which they critically rely. The inborn strengths (and weaknesses) of these 8 processes, for each person, help determine one’s individual Brain Type. Amazingly, each Brain Type has one-of-a-kind body/motor skills, too.

Those possessing the same Brain Type will share striking similarities, regardless of people group (who many refer to as “race”) or environment. Nurturing is very important in shaping each of us, but nature is the single greatest determinant for why we do what we do.

In other words, you could have the same Brain Type as Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy, or one of the separate Types of Michael Jordan, Tom Cruise, or Oprah Winfrey.

You will share many mental and physical characteristics with the celebrities of your personal Brain Type. And, the more you train yourself to be like a well known person—or anyone else of your Type—the more you’ll be like them. People of the other 15 Types can never attain the distinct giftedness of your particular Brain Type.

The Sixteen Brain Types

The descriptions below (except for the physical attributes) are similar to the 16 personality types that have been popularized and expanded in recent years from the early 20th century typological findings of Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung. Unlike Jung’s oft-errant psychological theories, his personality evaluations were insightful and based upon observing “normal” behavior in thousands of people over the course of his lifetime.

BTI’s independent studies and experiences have led us to concur that there are sixteen “types.” However, our belief concerning the various types is quite different from the norm. We distinguish these differing designs as Brain Types—found in all people the world over—each with unique cerebral/cognitive, physical/motor and visual/spatial skill proficiencies. The short definitions below of each Brain Type are only simple summaries—generic descriptions for the majority within each category. Though personas can vary significantly within individuals of each Brain Type (due to nurture: parenting, upbringing, etc., and nature: genetic variances), we believe that differing inborn neural circuits in each BT affect specific cognitive, physical, and spatial skills and that these similarities within each design are due to genetic hardwiring—nature.
BTI has built upon the empirical data collected by Jung and subsequent protagonists of his by applying neuroscientific, genetic, and biomechanical studies implemented by others and us. Our attempt has been to take Jung’s “soft’ typological findings into the 21st century “hard” sciences for verification. Our efforts have convinced us that Jung, including his modern-day devotees, was (and are) on the right track—though we believe they are far removed from the accuracy and scientific understanding now available for evaluating human behavior (cognitive, physical, and spatial).

Not only do we believe that Jung’s original “type” preferences and functions can be attributed to specific regions of the brain, but that they can be directly linked to specific motor (via the brain’s motor cortex) and spatial skills. Whereas Jung’s followers have devoted their attentions to outward personality characteristics, BTI’s studies and experience have led us to minimize outward persona and fixate on internal biological and physical characteristics that dictate cognitive, physical, and spatial behaviors. We are not interested in the typical “psychological” aspects of mankind but rather the quantifiable and verifiable biological behavioral dimensions—to be applied pragmatically to living life. We are not psychologists nor do we practice psychology. We are attempting to bring about a new and verifiable science–which we call Brain Typing.

BTI has recently released new terminology and nomenclature for our Brain Types, distinct from the 8 letters espoused by Jungian enthusiasts. Though we find no fault in Jung’s 8 terms, we believe there is a much more accurate and scientific way to describe man’s inborn skills. Though we have privately used these descriptions for years, we now believe the time is better for sharing some of this information with the public—which is generally disinterested in technical terms. Nonetheless, we believe it is necessary to assist others in going deeper into Brain Types and how the brain directs our various inborn “behaviors”.

We believe that Brain Typing is the most accurate methodology for evaluating and describing man’s inborn “normal” behavior—cerebrally and physically. Each of the 16 Brain Types have sub-classifications (which we hold in confidence at this time)—based upon other genetic and physiological variables. BTI has recently finished collaboration on another genetic study regarding a particular brain neurotransmitter. As other outside studies have already demonstrated that various neurotransmitter polymorphisms affect personality and behavior, BTI has pursued this course as well since the mid-’90s—examining the different Brain Types. Though we still believe that all people the world over fall into only one of the 16 designs, we clearly realize that each BT has other biological variances that create sub categories within it. This helps explain further the minor differences within each inborn design.

We encourage you to keep abreast of not only what BTI is espousing and bringing about, but to notice published genetic studies that are strongly suggesting and proving that man’s “normal” behavior is far more than 50 percent genetically based.

First is a list of the 8 Brain Type letters and their meanings.

The 16 Brain Types can be categorized in broader terms. Below they are listed as ELs, ERs, CAs, and CIs.
EAs / SFs

————————————-Brain Typing’s mental processes and their respective cerebral locales based upon neuroscientific studies

The following reflect the brain’s influence on the eight Brain Types dimensions. These are only basic points. (For a more detailed explanation, watch for soon-to-be-released new material from BT Enterprises):

Front brain-dominant and Back brain-dominant—measuring focus, levels of energy, and a host of other cerebral functions

Front brain (F): anterior to central sulcus

–personality—the prefrontal cortex is the most significant area for creating one’s outward “personality”.

–Expressing language through conversation/speech is activated by Brocas area in the left anterior forebrain (Q3). In general, those demonstrating extraversion are programmed from birth to be more adept in the Frontal lobes and tend to speak more and louder than those manifesting introverted characteristics. Nurturing, environment, and genetic variances also affect speech patterns—thus explaining most speech differences between Front- and Back-brain dominant persons.

A University of California medical school used PET scans to examine brain regions of people while speaking. They looked at the brain while they (1) made nonsense syllables, (2) recited the months of the year, and (3) recited a briefly memorized prose passage. While both the “mindless” recitation of the months and the prose passage used Wernicke’s area (the top back part of the temporal lobe), ONLY the prose showed activity in Broca’s area. The conclusion: rote memorized verbal tasks require little thought or sophisticated cortical activity. Bookheimer, S., et al. 2000. Neurology, Vol 55(8), 1151-1157.

–high degree of “attention” to outside world (principally a function of the anterior forebrain—especially right superior frontal gyrus)

–expressing emotion (left anterior forebrain)

–dopamine (a neurotransmitter that says, among other things, “do it” is primarily in anterior forebrain.

–anterior cingulate gyrus—regarded as the volition and will center (located in anterior forebrain); it causes humans to act. In addition, Front-brainers are innately designed to expend energy whereas Back-brainers conserve it.

–planning—an integral part of taking action and expending energy.

Planning involves maintaining one main goal while working on sub-goals for that main goal. This is apparently one of the unique human brain functions. The National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland has published findings that show that that particular task is performed in the most anterior part of the frontal lobes called the fronto- polar prefrontal cortex. Koechlin et. al, Nature 1999, vol 399(6732) 148-151.

Back brain (B):posterior to central sulcus

–understanding and comprehension of language (processed in left temporal lobe—Wernickes area)

Behind the primary sensory cortex is a large association area that controls fine sensation—weight, size, shape, etc.)

–smell and sound (temporal lobe)

–sight (occipital lobe)

–long-term memory—stored primarily posterior to central sulcus

–neuroscientists now suspect there are 4 separate memory systems in the brain (rather than one as long believed). Conscious memory of facts and events—hippocampus; associative learning (like Pavlovian conditioning)—cerebellum; emotional memories—amygdala; memories of learned skills—basal ganglia. These are posterior brain regions.

Dr. Kenneth Pugh, Psychiatrist and Medical Researcher at Yale, has studied the neural pathways which are generated in good readers. When the brain is asked to go from the listening and speaking modes to the visual spatial, yet abstract production of reading, new relationships between regions in the cortex are formed. This is true for all written languages. Skilled readers have engineered neural networks, which take the visual sensory input from “eye to meaning” in about 150 milliseconds. This is done through the dominant path of the eye to three posterior gyrus (areas in the back half of the cortex). The lingual, fusiform and angular gyrus collaborate to convert letters into meaning.

Empirical and Conceptual—measuring the way information is gathered or perceived

–though most sensing processes take place in the back of the brain, some reside in the brain’s anterior. For example, research demonstrates damage to the right frontal lobe creates an impairment of pictorial stimuli sequences.

–the anterior right forebrain is especially adept at design and spatial fluency in contrast with the left’s verbal fluency.

–A striking finding from many who suffer right-brain strokes is that they can understand the literal meaning of sentences–their left brain can still decode the words–but they can no longer get jokes or allusions. Asked to explain even a common proverb, such as “a stitch in time saves nine”, they can only say it must have something to do with sewing.

–visual imagery—most aspects of visual imagery are right hemisphere duties.

Inanimate and Animate—measuring the way information is reasoned

Inanimate (I): ‘thinking,’ logical, objective, and systematic reasoning. Inanimate function is found in both hemispheres; the right specializes in spatial logic and the left in verbal and numerical logic.

–synthetic, spatial reasoning is engaged in the posterior right forebrain. For example, damage in right parietal areas results in spatial reasoning deficits.

–verbal logic—principally a function of the left hemisphere, especially in Brocas area. (FEILs and FCILs are the most gifted in oral language logic, FEILs in practical realm and FCILs with abstract.

Animate (A): Animate, subjective, values-driven, and emotional reasoning. Animate function is found in both hemispheres

—expressing emotion—as early as the 1980’s, electroencephalographic studies revealed in patients that the left frontal region showed higher activity during negative emotions.

–a 2002 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences was the first to examine the neurological roots of what scientists call “negative affect,” a trait that predisposes people to anxiety, irritability, anger and a range of other unpleasant moods. The researchers conducted brain scans that measured changes in blood flow within their subject’s brains. The scientists found that increased brain activity in one particular region – the ventromedial prefrontal cortex — was associated with those who reported greater negative affect. Researchers say the circumstantial evidence indicates that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex acts as a sort of volume knob for emotions. While the emotions may be produced elsewhere in the brain in response to stimuli, this region of the brain can make them deafening or muted.

Left brain-dominant and Right brain-dominant—measuring the way we engage the outer world (and hemisphere dominance)

–the Left brain is the conscious hemisphere, more in touch with the moment. It is time driven, clock driven—especially the ELs.

–21st century research reveals that new and unexplored tasks are processed primarily by the Right brain, but as soon as they become familiar, they are then assigned to the Left hemisphere for processing and storage.

–the Right brain is the subconscious hemisphere; it is has greater difficulty paying attention. This explains why the vast majority of persons diagnosed with ADD are Right-brained dominant. The Right-brainer is process-oriented rather than time/clock driven.

–as reported above, many who suffer right-brain strokes can understand the literal meaning of sentences–their Left brain can still decode the words–but they can no longer get jokes or allusions. An intact Right brain is needed to make the more playful connections.

— the current assumptions about the relationship between handedness and lateralization are oversimplified. This is especially evident in left handed people who demonstrate use of their “non-dominate hand” in many more activities than right handed people.

A study out of Duke University shows that, if at all possible, our brain will solve tasks by processing information in only one hemisphere. We see this on simple problem solving tasks. However, as the tasks get more complex, the brain will always choose to process by coordinating information between the two hemispheres. Weissman and Banich (2000). Neuropsychology, vol 14(1), 41-59.

-as mentioned above, however, the latest research reveals that new and unexplored tasks are processed primarily by the Right brain, but as soon as they become familiar, they are then assigned to the Left hemisphere for processing and storage.